https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ Copyright (c) 2006-2013 Web Wiz Forums - All Rights Reserved. Tue, 05 May 2026 20:25:12 +0000 Tue, 08 Sep 2020 08:33:56 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 12.07 360 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=1863 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum//images/Top-40-Music-on-CD-Forum-Logo.png https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55695&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55695 Author: LunarLaugh
Subject: 1863
Posted: 08 September 2020 at 8:33am

I realized that I failed to also mention the Motown Year-
By-Year series which also features excellent transfers of
stereo and mono material that has a more eclectic range
than just the typical hits. ]]> Tue, 08 Sep 2020 08:33:56 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55695&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55695 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55652&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55652 Author: LunarLaugh
Subject: 1863
Posted: 06 September 2020 at 6:52am

I concur the Rhino discs are hard to beat for stereo
Motown in that they typically got the lowest generation
tapes and their mastering was very tasteful.
However, as I previously stated, the barrage of tape
dropouts and tape damage that is present in a lot of
the older Motown hits (particularly on the intros) is
still present on many of the Rhino comps. Granted, if
this doesn't bother you, then go for it. However,
Motown/Universal did do a very nice job of cleaning a
lot of these up and if you want to hear a handful of
tracks without these tape anomalies, they exist. I
don't recommend getting ONLY the newer Motown discs for
the stereo tracks as they are a mixed bag, as far as
mastering goes.

Someday I'll have to dig out all my handwritten notes
and post my findings here a'la Ron. ]]> Sun, 06 Sep 2020 06:52:55 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55652&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55652 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55619&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55619 Author: garye
Subject: 1863
Posted: 03 September 2020 at 6:22pm

The Complete Motown Number #1's CD 3 is stereo and runs
2:59.
It also says it is the U.S. version.
The Complete Motown singles version is mono and times in
a 3:05 and is slower than the stereo version.
Go figure!
]]> Thu, 03 Sep 2020 18:22:02 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55619&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55619 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55618&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55618 Author: crapfromthepast
Subject: 1863
Posted: 03 September 2020 at 4:55pm

In general, Rhino's Billboard discs sound superb. For the Motown tracks that appear on these discs, I've found them to be the best-sounding stereo versions of those songs.

That's an important distinction, because many (including myself) consider the mono mixes of the Motown hits (pre-1972) to be far superior to the stereo mixes.

Here's a detailed posts that discusses collecting Motown in mono.]]> Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:55:31 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55618&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55618 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55617&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55617 Author: C J Brown
Subject: 1863
Posted: 03 September 2020 at 4:23pm

I do have a 1999 Supremes comp "The Millenium
Collection" a two disc set. It has been so long I am
not certain but I think a few tracks here are improved
- not sure. I will need to review this set.

The same for a 1999 Marvin Gaye comp but once again I
will have to review to see which tracks are improved.

The Rhino Billboard R&B 1966 has a great sounding
version of "You Keep Me Hanging On" by the Supremes. Do
the various Supremes tracks on the other 64 - 70 Rhino
RB titles all have Supremes nuggets like that?
]]> Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:23:38 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55617&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55617 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55610&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55610 Author: LunarLaugh
Subject: 1863
Posted: 03 September 2020 at 12:02am

C J Brown wrote: Anyone have a list for the 1999 updated Motown transfers that may have repairs and any of the remixes mentioned above?

This would probably take up about 40+ pages. lol!

As stated the 20th Century Masters Motown sets contain
these transfers but the mastering itself can be a mixed
bag. On some tracks that were mono only, it sounds like
they used a variety of sources ranging from the
Hitsville Box to the late 90s Ultimate Collections (and
possibly the older 80s transfers on a handful of
others).

But practically ANYTHING Motown/Universal has compiled
and released in the past 20 years has made use of these
newer transfers in some capacity. Just like the older
Motown discs mostly just re-recycled the same transfers
over and over, so do the newer Motown discs.

As far as remixes go, a number of the "Gold" series of
releases as well as the post-Y2k Motown "Anthology"
discs have contained remixes of varying degrees of
quality alongside the original mixes.

The artist catalog that benefited the most from having
newer transfers of the stereo mixes was The Supremes.
Tape noise (not tape hiss) from misaligned tapes and
severe dropouts marred a lot of their early hits and
Universal did a very commendable job of restoring them
without adversely affecting the overall sound quality.
If you get their box set, their 20th Century Masters
and Rhino's Top R&B Hits 1964-1970, you'll have the
best sources for their songs in stereo (the 80s Motown
discs are still okay, too but those are just a little
better). As for mono Surpremes, the Bill Inglot
produced 1995 Anthology is the only way to go.

Edited by LunarLaugh]]> Thu, 03 Sep 2020 00:02:41 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55610&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55610 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55602&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55602 Author: Santi Paradoa
Subject: 1863
Posted: 02 September 2020 at 5:25pm

boxmaster wrote: There is also the original Make It Happen Mono LP version which contains a unique Smokey vocal not on any other version. As far as I know it's never been on CD.

Someone posted that unique mono version with the alternate lead
vocal on YouTube. I also would like to see it get released on CD (but the chances are fewer and far between these days). The tape with that mono version must still be deep in the vault somewhere. ]]> Wed, 02 Sep 2020 17:25:20 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55602&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55602 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55600&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55600 Author: C J Brown
Subject: 1863
Posted: 02 September 2020 at 4:09pm

Anyone have a list for the 1999 updated Motown transfers
that may have repairs and any of the remixes mentioned
above? ]]> Wed, 02 Sep 2020 16:09:36 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55600&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55600 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55596&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55596 Author: boxmaster
Subject: 1863
Posted: 02 September 2020 at 9:42am

There is also the original Make It Happen Mono LP version which contains a unique Smokey vocal not on any other version. As far as I know it's never been on CD.]]> Wed, 02 Sep 2020 09:42:40 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55596&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55596 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55593&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55593 Author: LunarLaugh
Subject: 1863
Posted: 01 September 2020 at 11:56pm

crapfromthepast wrote: Mono 45 version Appeared first on Motown's 4-CD Hitsville USA The Singles Collection 1959-1971 (1992). It sounds fantastic here. There's a digitally identical clone on Motown's Smokey Robinson And The Miracles 35th Anniversary Collection (1994). The mono 45 version appears on plenty of other collections that I don't own. Stereo LP version The stereo LP version appeared first on CD on Motown's Smokey Robinson And The Miracles Compact Command Performances 18 Greatest Hits (1983). The same analog transfer is used on: Motown's #1 Hits From The 70's (copyright 1982) - differently- EQ'd digital clone Motown's 25 #1 Hits From 25 Years Vol. 1 (1985) - digitally exactly 4.18 dB louder Motown's Endless Love 15 Of Motown's Greatest Love Songs (1986) - differently-EQ'd digital clone Motown's Motown's Biggest Pop Hits (1986) - digitally exactly 1 dB quieter than 25 #1 Hits From 25 Years Vol. 1 Motown's An Introduction To The Motown 9000 Series (1987) - digitally exactly 0.2 dB quieter than 25 #1 Hits From 25 Years Vol. 1 Motown's 3-CD Motown 30th Anniversary (1988) - differently- EQ'd digital clone Rhino's Billboard Top R&R Hits 1970 (1989) - digitally identical to Motown 9000 Series Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 1 1970 (1989) - digitally identical to Motown 9000 Series Session/Warner Special Products' 2-CD Sixties Frat Rock (1990) - differently-EQ'd digital clone Time-Life's Superhits Vol. 16 The Early '70s (1992) - truncated fade Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 13 The Early '70s (1992) - this whole disc is identical to Superhits Vol. 16 The Early '70s, so this also has a truncated fade Sony's 2-CD 35 Years Of Rock And Roll (1992) - fades a second or two earlier than others Time-Life's Solid Gold Soul Vol. 5 1970 (1996) - differently-EQ'd digital clone of Superhits, so has truncated fade Time-Life's Solid Gold Soul #1 Love Songs Of The '70s (2000) - digitally exactly 0.09 dB louder than Solid Gold Soul Vol. 5 1970, so has truncated fade Time-Life's Legends Of Soul Vol. 8 Smokey Robinson (2001) - differently-EQ'd digital clone of Solid Gold Soul Vol. 5 1970, so has truncated fade Crazy, right? Every CD I have with the stereo LP version is based on just one analog transfer. In the hundreds of songs I've picked apart here, this has only happened one other time ("What I Like About You" by the Romantics). My recommendations For the mono 45 version, go with Motown's 4-CD Hitsville USA The Singles Collection 1959-1971 (1992), just because it's the gold standard for box set label compilations. For the stereo LP version, they all sound basically the same! If you're shopping for compilations, I recommend Rhino's Billboard Top R&R Hits 1970 (1989) or Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 1 1970 (1989). If you avoid the later Time- Life discs, which have truncated fades, just about all the other collections will sound great for this song. I personally will use Motown's Smokey Robinson And The Miracles Compact Command Performances 18 Greatest Hits (1983), but only because I already have it.

When Universal bought Polygram and all its associated
properties (including Motown), there was a new batch of
transfers done for the purposes of updating Motown's
digital library. Dropouts were fixed, tape damage was
repaired in the DAW, and tape alignment issues were
addressed and dealt with. Some first-time remixes were
even accomplished.

The first appearance of these newer transfers was on
the 1999 series of Motown 20th Century Masters discs.
While the results vary drastically track-by-track and
disc-by-disc, I still grabbed up several of them
because they were worth having for some of the updates.
I have a lot of the Compact Digital Classics discs
along with both Hitsville USA boxes and many Rhino
compilations featuring these songs over and over. After
a lot of A/B comparison, I can say the 20th Century
Masters discs are far from garbage.

In the case of "Tears of A Clown", 20th Century Masters
is a little on the brighter side but the levels are not
awful (slight compression/limiting but no drastic
clipping at hard zero). The fade out also lasts just a
smidgen of a second longer than other CD appearances
(such as the Rhino and Compact Classics set mentioned).
So you get shiny new transfers, but the mastering is
sometimes lacking. Universal/Motown has been using
these as the go-to sources for nearly all their
compilation releases since then.

For my own music library, I actually used this as my
source and just adjusted the EQ more to my liking using
my studio software.

Edited by LunarLaugh]]> Tue, 01 Sep 2020 23:56:55 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1863&PID=55593&title=smokey-miraclestears-of-a-clown#55593